1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to display of textual information on a remote device, more particularly to text information accompanying audio programs.
2. Background of the Invention
Hand-held remote control devices are very common, as they accompany just about every type of consumer electronics device sold today. These include televisions, VCRs, DVD players, set-top boxes, CD players, tuners, and tape decks. Indeed, the proliferation of remote control devices has resulted in the development of programmable remotes that can absorb the functions of most of these remotes and consolidate them into one place.
Another advance in remote controls is the remote control with a separate display for controlling these various devices. One example of such a remote control is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,028. The remote control device described in this patent has an alphanumeric display, typically an LCD panel, on the remote control device. This device allows the user to not only control the various devices with a control communication means; it also allows the user to receive information visually from the various devices.
One example in the patent is the ability to receive information with regard to music being played across the television audio system. For example, some cable and satellite providers have xe2x80x9ccable-CDxe2x80x9d channels that broadcast music of a certain type across a particular channel of the television. The information sent to the remote control includes the name of the selection, the artist, the time, etc., information very similar to that which would be provided by a disc jockey in a broadcast environment. However, the information provided on the remote control is the information provided at the television, it is reproduced on the remote control device.
The display of textual information with regard to music broadcasts is the topic of two other patents. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,251, a method and apparatus is disclosed that allows the textual information related to a broadcast piece of music to be displayed on a display with the musical selection. Again the information is that related to the specifics of a piece of music, such as title, artist, year, etc. This information is broadcast as an auxiliary signal on the main carrier signal from the broadcast station. A further adaptation of this patent is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,849, in which the lyrics of the musical selection are broadcast at the same time. The broadcast could be from a broadcast center, such as an FM transmitter. The lyrics are combined with the audio broadcast and sent as auxiliary data on the main carrier signal. A tuner that displays both the tuning information on one display and the lyrics on another display receives the lyrics. Methods are provided for coordination between the lyrics and the music.
However, these approaches do not provide for any means of receiving the lyrics or textual information from other sources than the broadcast message. Additionally, the display of the lyrics is limited to the tuning device that receives the signal.
One aspect of this invention is a method of displaying text corresponding to closed-captioning for audio programs. Audio signal data and closed-captioning data are located for an audio program. The audio signal data is then converted to sound to produce the audio program and the closed-captioning data is simultaneously displayed on a remote device. The remote device may be a remote device associated with a consumer electronics system, or a stand alone remote connected to a network.
Another aspect of the invention is an apparatus for receiving a complex audio signal having both audio signal data and closed-captioning data. The audio signal data is sent to an audio signal processor. The closed-captioning data is sent to a closed-caption decoder that decodes the data and converts it into a textual display. The display of the text and the playing of the audio signal are synchronized.